What date encoding could this be?












8














40 years ago I read a book, but couldn't remember the title. I've been looking for it for a while, and I finally (finally!) found it!



And then I worked out why it took so long. It hasn't been released yet! In fact, according to this website I found it on, it won't be released for another seven millenia - when the Earth's spin will be so fast that December will have (at least) 80 days. Global warming? Pah!



Good book! IF you can wait 7,143 years...



http://www.holisticpage.com.au/out-of-this-world-science-fiction-stories-edward-blishen/9780753462461 (Note I’ve told them of this: they may fixhave fixed it.)



Now obviously no human entered this wild date. It's a mis-decode of something - perhaps the ISBN? My question is: can anyone think of an existing decoding algorithm that was so messed up it would invent an entirely new calendar?










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  • Are you sure that's not BC? ;D
    – jpmc26
    yesterday










  • @jpmc26 I don't know which is more believable: a book coming back in time, or a printing press invented 10,000 years before Gutenberg
    – John Burger
    yesterday
















8














40 years ago I read a book, but couldn't remember the title. I've been looking for it for a while, and I finally (finally!) found it!



And then I worked out why it took so long. It hasn't been released yet! In fact, according to this website I found it on, it won't be released for another seven millenia - when the Earth's spin will be so fast that December will have (at least) 80 days. Global warming? Pah!



Good book! IF you can wait 7,143 years...



http://www.holisticpage.com.au/out-of-this-world-science-fiction-stories-edward-blishen/9780753462461 (Note I’ve told them of this: they may fixhave fixed it.)



Now obviously no human entered this wild date. It's a mis-decode of something - perhaps the ISBN? My question is: can anyone think of an existing decoding algorithm that was so messed up it would invent an entirely new calendar?










share|improve this question









New contributor




John Burger is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




















  • Are you sure that's not BC? ;D
    – jpmc26
    yesterday










  • @jpmc26 I don't know which is more believable: a book coming back in time, or a printing press invented 10,000 years before Gutenberg
    – John Burger
    yesterday














8












8








8


1





40 years ago I read a book, but couldn't remember the title. I've been looking for it for a while, and I finally (finally!) found it!



And then I worked out why it took so long. It hasn't been released yet! In fact, according to this website I found it on, it won't be released for another seven millenia - when the Earth's spin will be so fast that December will have (at least) 80 days. Global warming? Pah!



Good book! IF you can wait 7,143 years...



http://www.holisticpage.com.au/out-of-this-world-science-fiction-stories-edward-blishen/9780753462461 (Note I’ve told them of this: they may fixhave fixed it.)



Now obviously no human entered this wild date. It's a mis-decode of something - perhaps the ISBN? My question is: can anyone think of an existing decoding algorithm that was so messed up it would invent an entirely new calendar?










share|improve this question









New contributor




John Burger is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











40 years ago I read a book, but couldn't remember the title. I've been looking for it for a while, and I finally (finally!) found it!



And then I worked out why it took so long. It hasn't been released yet! In fact, according to this website I found it on, it won't be released for another seven millenia - when the Earth's spin will be so fast that December will have (at least) 80 days. Global warming? Pah!



Good book! IF you can wait 7,143 years...



http://www.holisticpage.com.au/out-of-this-world-science-fiction-stories-edward-blishen/9780753462461 (Note I’ve told them of this: they may fixhave fixed it.)



Now obviously no human entered this wild date. It's a mis-decode of something - perhaps the ISBN? My question is: can anyone think of an existing decoding algorithm that was so messed up it would invent an entirely new calendar?







computer-puzzle






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share|improve this question









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share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 23 hours ago







John Burger













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asked yesterday









John BurgerJohn Burger

1465




1465




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Check out our Code of Conduct.












  • Are you sure that's not BC? ;D
    – jpmc26
    yesterday










  • @jpmc26 I don't know which is more believable: a book coming back in time, or a printing press invented 10,000 years before Gutenberg
    – John Burger
    yesterday


















  • Are you sure that's not BC? ;D
    – jpmc26
    yesterday










  • @jpmc26 I don't know which is more believable: a book coming back in time, or a printing press invented 10,000 years before Gutenberg
    – John Burger
    yesterday
















Are you sure that's not BC? ;D
– jpmc26
yesterday




Are you sure that's not BC? ;D
– jpmc26
yesterday












@jpmc26 I don't know which is more believable: a book coming back in time, or a printing press invented 10,000 years before Gutenberg
– John Burger
yesterday




@jpmc26 I don't know which is more believable: a book coming back in time, or a printing press invented 10,000 years before Gutenberg
– John Burger
yesterday










3 Answers
3






active

oldest

votes


















15














Not a real answer:




It's not an isolated issue, it seems. There is another one I found here and again the actual date is 16 September 2008

Same is the publishing date of the book in the question. It is worth noting that if we write down the date 16 September 2008 in 'american style' mmddyyyy we get the number 09162008 and this number contains the wrong 'year' 9162.


The likely explanation here is a parse algorithm error (code snippet courtesy of @IanMacDonald):



function getDateString(input) {
let months = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'];
let match = (input + "00000000").match(/^0*([1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])/);
let year = match[1];
let month = (12+(match[2]-1))%12; // Make sure we're zero-indexing months
let day = match[3];
return day + ' ' + months[month] + ' ' + year;
}






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday






  • 4




    I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
    – M Oehm
    yesterday












  • @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
    – rhsquared
    yesterday










  • Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday






  • 2




    With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
    – Jaap Scherphuis
    yesterday



















3














This could be a human error - people are very capable of doing more messed up things than computers! It looks like it was published on the 16/09/2008 or 9/16/2008 in american date format. the year probably comes from 9162 being put into the yyyy section, and the 80 from a corruption of '08, however not sure where December has come into it!



(From a quick google it doesn't look like date is stored in the ISBN number https://www.isbn-international.org/content/what-isbn)






share|improve this answer








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olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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  • It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
    – John Burger
    yesterday










  • Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
    – olim
    yesterday






  • 1




    That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
    – John Burger
    yesterday










  • December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
    – tilper
    yesterday



















0














Just to remove the possibility of another answer




the ISBN number was NOT parsed as a UNIX timestamp. Using this, the ISBN number corresponds to a second in the year 2280.







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    Your Answer





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    3 Answers
    3






    active

    oldest

    votes








    3 Answers
    3






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    15














    Not a real answer:




    It's not an isolated issue, it seems. There is another one I found here and again the actual date is 16 September 2008

    Same is the publishing date of the book in the question. It is worth noting that if we write down the date 16 September 2008 in 'american style' mmddyyyy we get the number 09162008 and this number contains the wrong 'year' 9162.


    The likely explanation here is a parse algorithm error (code snippet courtesy of @IanMacDonald):



    function getDateString(input) {
    let months = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'];
    let match = (input + "00000000").match(/^0*([1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])/);
    let year = match[1];
    let month = (12+(match[2]-1))%12; // Make sure we're zero-indexing months
    let day = match[3];
    return day + ' ' + months[month] + ' ' + year;
    }






    share|improve this answer



















    • 1




      Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 4




      I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
      – M Oehm
      yesterday












    • @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
      – rhsquared
      yesterday










    • Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 2




      With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
      – Jaap Scherphuis
      yesterday
















    15














    Not a real answer:




    It's not an isolated issue, it seems. There is another one I found here and again the actual date is 16 September 2008

    Same is the publishing date of the book in the question. It is worth noting that if we write down the date 16 September 2008 in 'american style' mmddyyyy we get the number 09162008 and this number contains the wrong 'year' 9162.


    The likely explanation here is a parse algorithm error (code snippet courtesy of @IanMacDonald):



    function getDateString(input) {
    let months = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'];
    let match = (input + "00000000").match(/^0*([1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])/);
    let year = match[1];
    let month = (12+(match[2]-1))%12; // Make sure we're zero-indexing months
    let day = match[3];
    return day + ' ' + months[month] + ' ' + year;
    }






    share|improve this answer



















    • 1




      Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 4




      I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
      – M Oehm
      yesterday












    • @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
      – rhsquared
      yesterday










    • Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 2




      With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
      – Jaap Scherphuis
      yesterday














    15












    15








    15






    Not a real answer:




    It's not an isolated issue, it seems. There is another one I found here and again the actual date is 16 September 2008

    Same is the publishing date of the book in the question. It is worth noting that if we write down the date 16 September 2008 in 'american style' mmddyyyy we get the number 09162008 and this number contains the wrong 'year' 9162.


    The likely explanation here is a parse algorithm error (code snippet courtesy of @IanMacDonald):



    function getDateString(input) {
    let months = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'];
    let match = (input + "00000000").match(/^0*([1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])/);
    let year = match[1];
    let month = (12+(match[2]-1))%12; // Make sure we're zero-indexing months
    let day = match[3];
    return day + ' ' + months[month] + ' ' + year;
    }






    share|improve this answer














    Not a real answer:




    It's not an isolated issue, it seems. There is another one I found here and again the actual date is 16 September 2008

    Same is the publishing date of the book in the question. It is worth noting that if we write down the date 16 September 2008 in 'american style' mmddyyyy we get the number 09162008 and this number contains the wrong 'year' 9162.


    The likely explanation here is a parse algorithm error (code snippet courtesy of @IanMacDonald):



    function getDateString(input) {
    let months = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'];
    let match = (input + "00000000").match(/^0*([1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])([0-9][0-9])/);
    let year = match[1];
    let month = (12+(match[2]-1))%12; // Make sure we're zero-indexing months
    let day = match[3];
    return day + ' ' + months[month] + ' ' + year;
    }







    share|improve this answer














    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer








    edited yesterday

























    answered yesterday









    rhsquaredrhsquared

    7,81521746




    7,81521746








    • 1




      Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 4




      I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
      – M Oehm
      yesterday












    • @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
      – rhsquared
      yesterday










    • Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 2




      With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
      – Jaap Scherphuis
      yesterday














    • 1




      Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 4




      I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
      – M Oehm
      yesterday












    • @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
      – rhsquared
      yesterday










    • Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
      – Ian MacDonald
      yesterday






    • 2




      With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
      – Jaap Scherphuis
      yesterday








    1




    1




    Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday




    Yes, the likeliest answer here is that whoever is parsing the date has made an assumption about component ordering.
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday




    4




    4




    I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
    – M Oehm
    yesterday






    I can imagine that the date was 9/16/2008. Strip all non-digits, pad with a zero at the back, because we need 8 digits, then interpret as yyyymmdd. That would mean that December was represeted by 00. I can also imagine that every illegal month is shown as December, if the code goes like this:: ...; if (m==11) return "Nov"; return "Dec"; /* Treat everything else as Dec ;) */
    – M Oehm
    yesterday














    @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
    – rhsquared
    yesterday




    @MOehm Yep, sounds possible but basically it's a algorithm/programmers mistake.
    – rhsquared
    yesterday












    Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday




    Follow-up game: find all entries on the website that have the incorrect date format entered in their database. Bonus points if you use the open API to scrape all their data, then report back to them with a list of date conversions they need to update.
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday




    2




    2




    With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
    – Jaap Scherphuis
    yesterday




    With regards to 00 being December, maybe they just applied a mod 12 to bring every input into the range 1 to 12, i.e. something like month = ((input-1)%12)+1. This makes 01=13=25..=January, and so on until 00=12=24..=December.
    – Jaap Scherphuis
    yesterday











    3














    This could be a human error - people are very capable of doing more messed up things than computers! It looks like it was published on the 16/09/2008 or 9/16/2008 in american date format. the year probably comes from 9162 being put into the yyyy section, and the 80 from a corruption of '08, however not sure where December has come into it!



    (From a quick google it doesn't look like date is stored in the ISBN number https://www.isbn-international.org/content/what-isbn)






    share|improve this answer








    New contributor




    olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.


















    • It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
      – olim
      yesterday






    • 1




      That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
      – tilper
      yesterday
















    3














    This could be a human error - people are very capable of doing more messed up things than computers! It looks like it was published on the 16/09/2008 or 9/16/2008 in american date format. the year probably comes from 9162 being put into the yyyy section, and the 80 from a corruption of '08, however not sure where December has come into it!



    (From a quick google it doesn't look like date is stored in the ISBN number https://www.isbn-international.org/content/what-isbn)






    share|improve this answer








    New contributor




    olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.


















    • It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
      – olim
      yesterday






    • 1




      That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
      – tilper
      yesterday














    3












    3








    3






    This could be a human error - people are very capable of doing more messed up things than computers! It looks like it was published on the 16/09/2008 or 9/16/2008 in american date format. the year probably comes from 9162 being put into the yyyy section, and the 80 from a corruption of '08, however not sure where December has come into it!



    (From a quick google it doesn't look like date is stored in the ISBN number https://www.isbn-international.org/content/what-isbn)






    share|improve this answer








    New contributor




    olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.









    This could be a human error - people are very capable of doing more messed up things than computers! It looks like it was published on the 16/09/2008 or 9/16/2008 in american date format. the year probably comes from 9162 being put into the yyyy section, and the 80 from a corruption of '08, however not sure where December has come into it!



    (From a quick google it doesn't look like date is stored in the ISBN number https://www.isbn-international.org/content/what-isbn)







    share|improve this answer








    New contributor




    olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.









    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer






    New contributor




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    answered yesterday









    olimolim

    713




    713




    New contributor




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    New contributor





    olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.






    olim is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
    Check out our Code of Conduct.












    • It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
      – olim
      yesterday






    • 1




      That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
      – tilper
      yesterday


















    • It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
      – olim
      yesterday






    • 1




      That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
      – John Burger
      yesterday










    • December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
      – tilper
      yesterday
















    It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
    – John Burger
    yesterday




    It could be human error - but this was from a book site, so I assumed it was coming from some database somewhere. Yes there was a 2008 edition (some 10 years after the anthologist’s passing), but it has an ISBN-10 number, which ceased being used after 2006. Also, according to trove.nla.gov.au/work/5510591 there was a 1988 edition - plus I know I read it before then
    – John Burger
    yesterday












    Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
    – olim
    yesterday




    Hi, thanks for the extra info! It appears that the older edition (first published in 1988) was titled just "Science Fiction Stories" link and had different ISBN numbers (as appears to be the norm for any variations wiki ISBN ). Which website was it from? Is it a common issue across the site?
    – olim
    yesterday




    1




    1




    That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
    – John Burger
    yesterday




    That was my thought too. I didn’t investigate too deeply, but I checked other titles - they seemed fine. I’ve edited the question with the URL (apologies for forgetting!)
    – John Burger
    yesterday












    December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
    – tilper
    yesterday




    December could have come from an "else" condition in the month parsing. if month == 1 then 'January'; else if month == 2 then 'February'; and so on until else if month == 11 then 'November'; else 'December'. Just a guess and there should be better ways of handling that parsing anyway.
    – tilper
    yesterday











    0














    Just to remove the possibility of another answer




    the ISBN number was NOT parsed as a UNIX timestamp. Using this, the ISBN number corresponds to a second in the year 2280.







    share|improve this answer










    New contributor




    Calvin Godfrey is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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      0














      Just to remove the possibility of another answer




      the ISBN number was NOT parsed as a UNIX timestamp. Using this, the ISBN number corresponds to a second in the year 2280.







      share|improve this answer










      New contributor




      Calvin Godfrey is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.





















        0












        0








        0






        Just to remove the possibility of another answer




        the ISBN number was NOT parsed as a UNIX timestamp. Using this, the ISBN number corresponds to a second in the year 2280.







        share|improve this answer










        New contributor




        Calvin Godfrey is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.









        Just to remove the possibility of another answer




        the ISBN number was NOT parsed as a UNIX timestamp. Using this, the ISBN number corresponds to a second in the year 2280.








        share|improve this answer










        New contributor




        Calvin Godfrey is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.









        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited yesterday









        Glorfindel

        13.5k34983




        13.5k34983






        New contributor




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        answered yesterday









        Calvin GodfreyCalvin Godfrey

        1011




        1011




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